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What’s it about?
A gay coming-of-age romance set in the Italian countryside, circa-1987. Timothee Chalamet is a Jewish-American teenager meandering through a lazy Summer with his archaeologist parents until he develops an unexpected but powerful crush on his father’s handsome temporary research assistant played by Armie Hammer. They flirt, they flirt some more, they hook up, they get serious, they get really serious, they take a romantic trip, then… a reflective finale that concludes on an unexpectedly powerful note that’s likely best left unspoiled to achieve the best effect.

That’s it?
Pretty much. It’s not really a film of twists or reveals or monumentally deep information or even “plot” in any conventional sense. It’s an observational character piece that’s meant to be experienced in terms of visual beauty, erotic charge and thoughtful contemplation on the intensity and brevity of youth and love.

So what’s the big deal?
It’s most noteworthy for the relative explicitness with which it photographs the romantic and sexual encounters between its main characters and the way those scenes are paired with the gorgeous locales and postcard-ready vacation vistas.
In that respect it’s very similar to the erotic light melodramas of the 6os and 70s that helped make the so-called European arthouse cinema an institution in the U.S., what with frankly-presented sexuality being a fresh onscreen conceit at the time.

So it’s your “My memorable sexy Summer fling in paradise” movie, but with a gay male couple?
Basically, yeah. There’s nuance to be found in the depth of way the characters converse, but the “novelty” here is that (unfortunately) gay male audiences typically don’t get to see explicit romantic films aimed at them cast with major stars and released theatrically with lavish production values. And while one can only hope that we aren’t far off from the day when films like this are seen more as early examples of a common occurrence rather than a profound cinematic rarity, that’s precisely what it is today.

Who’s behind it?
It’s an adaptation of the novel of the same name by André Aciman directed by Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino as the third film in his thematically-connected “Desire Trilogy” following I Am Love and A Bigger Splash. James Ivory (formerly of the “Merchant Ivory” production duo) wrote the script, which is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay. Also of special note is cinematography by internationally-renowned shooter Sayombhu Mukdeeprom, who also shot Antonia and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives.

How are the actors?
Uniformly magnificent, easily the main reason to see the film. Chalamet (who’s been popping up a bit here and there but has been something of a chameleon to this point) has a star-making turn in the lead, revealing a believable vulnerability but also the specific mix of naivete and overconfidence recognizable in teenaged boys of all stripes. Hammer, meanwhile, is almost perfectly cast. What’s always made him a difficult actor for Hollywood to get a handle on to this point is that he’s one of those guys who’s almost so impossibly “classically handsome” looking in the conventional sense that it can be hard to take him seriously as anything other than a caricature of what he just sort of actually looks like. But here he’s effectively asked to embody a kind of walking Prince Charming fantasy figure and it very much works (and allows the fact that he’s also a really good actor to come to the forefront.) But the show gets stolen right near the end by 2017 acting MVP Michael Stuhlbarg as Chalamet’s father, delivering a monologue that effectively comprises the thematic core of the entire film.

So you recommend it?
Yes. You spend the movie going “this is pretty good!” then the ending leaves you with “WOW, that was DEVASTATING!” and then you come back down to “Okay, that was pretty good” again, but it’s still a remarkably high-quality work of its kind. Very much worth the hype, but if someday we look back and wonder what the big deal was… well, that’ll just mean we got to a better place and that’ll be alright, too.